1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is in the field of medical instruments, and it relates particularly to an instrument for safely and gently collecting a cell sample, transporting such sample from the collection site to an inspection site.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For the diagnosis of various human and animal disorders it is important to obtain adequate cell samples for inspection. Typical instances include diagnosis of allergic and infectious eye and nasal problems, rectal infections, herpes infections, vaginal infections, chlamydia, and viral diseases, particularly viral diseases whose diagnosis involves the use of monoclonal or polyclonal antibodies. For example, in diagnosing an allergic condition or a nasal infection, the conventional prior art procedure is to employ a wire loop with a cotton tip, working the cotton tip up and down against mucosa or mucous membrane tissue in an endeavor to get cells to adhere to the cotton so as to obtain a sample of the tissue. The preferred sites from which such a mucosa sample was to be obtained was one of the inferior turbinates, and the clearance between the inferior turbinates and the septum is so narrow (only about 1 mm) that the conventional cotton-tipped wire loop implement was difficult to manipulate in the constricted space. Thus, in many instances it was not possible with this conventional implement to obtain a good enough sample for analysis of the diseased mucosa tissue.
A mucosa sample from the constricted region of one of the inferior turbinates would be much more reliably obtainable by the use of a medical instrument capable of scraping up the tissue sample instead of having to attempt to rub cells off of the tissue by means of a cotton-tipped implement. However, no such medical instrument has been available prior to the present invention, apparently because of the delicacy and vulnerability to injury of the tissue, and also the space constriction in the region from which the tissue sample must be taken. The prior art medical instruments which come closest in appearance to the present invention are curettes, which are metal instruments that are used for scraping bones of the ear, and which for such function are required to be generally rigid. Such metal instruments are much too dangerous to introduce into the nasal cavity because of the likelihood of injury, particularly in the case of children who tend to move around under the stress of such medical attention. In addition, use of metal instruments is unsuitable in several applications since the metal can be toxic either to the organism or to the cell culture with which the probe will come in contact. Examples of such generally rigid metal curettes are disclosed in Russian Patent No. 219,091, German patent No. 362,997, and U.S. Pat. No. 839,641. Other medically related implements which bear some limited resemblance to the present invention include a double-ended metal rod structure having small spoon-shaped cavities at both ends for obtaining secretion samples from the urethra and cervix disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,669,395; a rigid plastic ear spatula device having an enlarged handle which tapers down in a narrowing shank contoured to fit the ear canal, and then enlarges to a cupped forward tip shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,425,917; and a dissector for stripping thickened intima in sclerotically diseased arteries, the instrument being made of metal, having an enlarged handle, a long thin shaft of uniform thickness made of a malleable metal having limited resiliency and flexibility and being bendable to retain a bent configuration, and an enlarged trowel-like operational tip, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,138.
In the above-referenced German Patent No. 362,997, the curette is longitudinally adjustable relative to its handle, and indexing lines on the shaft indicate how far forward the operative tip of the curette is from a stop flange associated with the handle.
None of these prior art medical instruments would be suitable for use in obtaining cell samples such as nasal mucosa samples.